My OTHER next Tele...a pictorial...8-22-23 another "Final" Update

MichaelW

MichaelW

Well-known member
Just when you thought you were safe from pic heavy threads........ :ROFLMAO:

Being the multi-tasker that I am, I'm actually working on yet another new Tele build that I am TOTALLY going to blame on @HamishR for planting the seeds in my GAS filled head for:)

Actually, I've been wanting to do one of these ever since I built my P90 tele build.

As you may recall that guitar began as a GFS poplar painted body routed for Filtertrons. I was so impressed with the quality of that body for the price point that it launched both my Red Strat and Red Tele projects.

It seems that the poplar bodies are just better cut, cleaner pockets and cleaner neck pockets. Probably because of the wood. Even though poplar and pine are not considered "premium" tone woods, I've always liked them a lot. Some of the very early Fenders used both. (We're seeing Pine bodies making a comeback even on high end guitars. Poplar to me is slightly less dense than alder. Without getting into "cork sniffery" over tone woods on electrics, I've always found that it's pretty close to Swamp Ash compared to Alder.

Anyway, I decided I absolutely "needed" a Tele with Filtertrons.

So far all I have is the body. No plans to age or relic this body. I'm still shopping for pickups and a neck for it. (Actually I did order a neck but juries out on it until I get it and check the quality.)

Also BIG question is whether to Bigsby or not to Bigsby? I kinda have the Filteron w/Bigsby sound covered with my Starla.
I'm leaning more towards a Tele half dish bridge to get the Tele twang.

More to come. At this point I'm not which tele is going to make it over the finish line first.

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I've been working with poplar lately, and it's lightweight and machines well, but I have found it softer and more susceptible to dings than something like oak. I used solid poplar to make cabinet doors, and I'll be using it to make some shelving. It's relatively fast growing for a hardwood and I think it has an attractive grain pattern. Curious to see how you like this one when it's done.

I've long been interested in a tele with filtertrons too. 👀
 
My P90 Tele is Poplar and I love it. Yah, somewhat softer than Alder, more like Swamp Ash that dings pretty easily before you put a finish on it.
Certainly not like mahogany or oak that's for sure.
 
Well made a bit of progress on this build today as well. Parallel Tele builds hahaha.

Still waiting for the pickups. I wound up ordering a set of TV Jones. Classic in the neck and Classic Plus for the bridge.
I guess they're made to order.

The rest of the hardware showed up a couple of days ago but the real surprise was that the USPS dropped off the neck today, on Easter Sunday??? I was pretty surprised.

The 3rd neck I got from the same Reverb dude is supposed to show up tomorrow. I decided to go with a one piece maple neck for the "Tele-Tron". I'm stunned at the quality of the neck. It's superb. Every bit as good as a finished Allparts neck and I payed less than $120 for it.

Anyway, first thing I decided to do before any hardware got installed was to put a nice coat of carnauba wax on this body since this will be a "new" guitar with no aging. Really love this Music Nomad carnauba.

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Next up is the bridge plate. Since I'm getting the Gotoh In Tune saddles anyway I decided to get a bare plate.
There are "shorty" plates available but they were all more expensive. This plain Jane Fender plate was only $16 on Amazon. A little elbow grease and it will work fine. It's the same bridge plate I used on my P90 Tele build.

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Since I don't have room for a bandsaw and disc grinder, I had to do this "old school".....meaning a hack saw and file.
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After cleaning up and squaring the straight edge, I put a radius on the corners, de-burred the edges and buffed it a bit for a smooth feel under my palm.

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Then same routine as the other Tele with getting it aligned and installed.
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The neck is already finished in a Satin nitro. So all I need to do is the headstock and final fret dress.
Really nice neck.
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Interestingly, the fret dressing is not quite as good as the first neck. I mean, someone touched it but it's still going to need some work.
I didn't check whether or not the frets are level. I usually like to do that under string tension.

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Same placement for my headstock water slide logo.
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Continued in next post.....
 
Here's a mock up of what it will look like. Hardware installed but not wired up yet. I decided to go for a "Gretsch" look with the Gretsch style knobs from Kluson. For the SwitchCraft toggle I got a metal knob.
Also installed a cream half pick guard "Cabronita" style.

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This guitar is going to look pretty sharp with the brushed nickel Filtertrons.

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More to come, stay tuned!:)
 
jimilee said:
Oh nice, that looks fantastic. Fret dressing, to me, is the worst. I would be covered up in guitars were it not for that,
Click to expand...
Once you collect the right tools and have done it a few times, it's not that bad. It's a bit of a "Zen" moment for me getting into the zone doing frets. Plus, the freedom and independence from having to take your guitar to a tech and they still not get it right is downright liberating... :ROFLMAO:

Then there's the issue of how anal I am about how guitars play. I've got some pretty specific (some may say ridiculous) standards that usually only I can meet. But it takes some fine tuning and typically over a few weeks of playing, finding a wierd note, dressing, playing, finding one rough spot, dressing, playing....and so it goes....
 
MichaelW said:
Once you collect the right tools and have done it a few times, it's not that bad. It's a bit of a "Zen" moment for me getting into the zone doing frets. Plus, the freedom and independence from having to take your guitar to a tech and they still not get it right is downright liberating... :ROFLMAO:

Then there's the issue of how anal I am about how guitars play. I've got some pretty specific (some may say ridiculous) standards that usually only I can meet. But it takes some fine tuning and typically over a few weeks of playing, finding a wierd note, dressing, playing, finding one rough spot, dressing, playing....and so it goes....
Click to expand...
Oh yeah, I agree. I’ve had guitars set up in the past, and had to reset it up myself. I have some stew mac fret dressing tools, I thought that would make it less tedious. It’s one of those things that’s exciting, then about half way through, I just want it to be over. 🤣🤣🤣
 
4-14-23 Update:

All dressed up with nowhere to go.

I dressed the fret ends a bit and put it all together. This neck/body combo needed a .25 degree shim to get the action where I wanted.

Just waiting on TV Jones to get my pickups to me and I can finish it up. Super excited about this one. Yah, I've said this before...."plays like a dream" hahaha. Love these necks.

I'm going to re-neck my Red Strat too with one of these. The Mighty Mite neck that I used for it just isn't the best made or best feeling neck despite my best efforts.

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Posted this in the mailbox thread as well. Took about 3 1/2 weeks but my pickups finally arrived today. Boy they were worth the wait, they sound awesome!!!

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Freaking GuitarFetish is out of stock on the back control panel. And of COURSE they use a non-Standard size....this is the closest I could get but there's quite a gap. I'm on the waiting list for the correct cover but who the heck knows when they'll be back in stock.

Also, one of my tuning keys is stripping out.....sigh....these are the Fender Roadworn series tuning keys that have never let me down, til now...
Amazon is sending some replacements, and I'll swap out the one key.

After sitting under string tension for a couple weeks, there's a high fret that I need to deal with as well.

But all that's minor stuff. For all intents and purposes this guitar is done! Very happy with how it sounds and plays. And love the fact that I got away with using a $90 body and a $120 neck and it plays, feels, sounds and looks like a premium guitar. (Heck the pickups cost more than everything else I have in the guitar combined!)

I'll try to get a demo together soon. Thanks for coming along for the ride!
 
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